Self sabotage

24Oct10

After my last couple of projects I thought I’d go for something really quick and simple. Ideally a pattern that could be cut and sewn in a weekend. I need some more skirts and I have a yard of red wool left over from my Vogue 8667 dress.

I went though all my Burdas in search of a pattern and found number 124 from February 2010. Perfect: it’s unlined, needs less than a yard of fabric, and is just my style. You have to trace Burda magazine patterns so that adds a bit of time, but not too much. Right?

The first problem was that it’s a petite size and I’m not. But how
hard can it be to add a bit of length to a straight skirt? Burda’s otherwise comprehensive sizing chart doesn’t give skirt length or hip depth numbers, but I measured myself and the pattern and worked something out. That and the tracing took an evening.

Then I realised I’d really have to line the skirt because my wool is itchy. But I don’t have enough lining fabric left over to make the skirt up as-is in lining fabric, so I had to go back to the pattern and turn the insets into darts to make a lining pattern that would fit onto my fabric. That and cutting out took another evening.

Now it’s the weekend but I’m not sewing this weekend because I have other things on. At this rate the simple skirt is probably going to take longer than the rather more involved jumpsuit project, even though the actual sewing part of it will be quick. I hope I’ve not just jinxed that too!

When it’s finished I am going to revisit the jumpsuit, having got some great advice from Inkstain and Elizabeth on how to alter and style it – thanks both!

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Hi, Catherine. Notice I’ve now got a split personality, having divorced my sewing from my writing, I’ve got a new sewing blog as linked above. Anyway, about the skirt. You might make a red wool facing that covers the upper part of the skirt, e.g. the inserts which are such a great part of the dsign, and then have just enough lining fabric to connect to the facing around the hip line, to line the rest of the skirt. This is the way classy skirts are finished anyway, so that the lining isn’t rolling out into view at your waist seam. Vogue patterns sometimes give you the facing pattern piece as well as the shortened lining piece.
Second my observation is that Burda petite measurement are generally 2cm less in arm and torso lengths and if I were you, I’d experiment with lengthening the skirt by that much mid-thigh to see if they’re consistent. It drives me crazy that no pattern company tells you how long they expect your upper or lower leg.
Bestest,